Deep Within
by Arian Rose Light
Summary: SET 10 YEARS BEFORE ZERO SERIES: Aleous knew her parents were dead and that she was what was left of their lineage. She was positive; she'd seen their bodies. But when her class field trip takes an unexpected turn, she finds something that shakes her core. Join Aleous on her journey to uncover the truth about her parents' death and how she finds who she is to herself and not others


**Deep Within: Prologue**

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><p><em>"Who is to say, that we are not enemies lurking within the shadows?"<em>

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><p>Neo Arcadia: a safe-haven for humans, <em>protected<em> by Master X-our leader-and his four sages-the Guardians. These five are the only five reploids allowed within the boarders of the walled-city that _protects_ us humans. Master X had fought for us hundred years in the past, with his fellow Maverick Hunters and best friends, Zero and Axl. What became of either, I do not know, nor did I care. I was happy and content with my life. I had friends and my education was thriving. What more could I ever ask for? I know one thing I-like most of the humans-never knew until now:

The truth. And the truth is a powerful, deadly thing.

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><p>My knowledge for wanting to truth began when I was twelve, when my class and I were having a field trip to the Neo Arcadia Tower. We were all staring at the shining metals and the little helper 'bots that hovered in the air. Well, everyone else was at least. The tour reploid pointed out to a large window (apparently the largest in the Neo Arcadia Tower), that viewed over the large city we lived in. My classmates all stared openly with large grins and smiles, "Oooh~!"-ing and "Ahhh~!"-ing at the sight. "I can see my house!" one of my fellow students called excitedly, pointing to a random part of the city. Students gathered around to see where he was pointing.<p>

I blew at my bangs as I stood away from the crowd, my arms crossed and a sour look on my face, no doubt. I was not very pleasant as a child, I'll admit that. My teacher, Mrs. Hikari, walked over and asked, "Do you not want to look out the window, Aleous?" I turned my gaze away from hers and muttered, "It's just a window... who cares? I want to see the control room!" My eyes sparkled at the thought. I loved modifying things and seeing complex machinery, it made my day.

She laughed. "That's not part of the tour, though," she stated. I scowled again. "Which is exactly why I'm having a bad time," I retorted, snapping back to my slightly depressed, gloomy persona. I watched Mrs. Hikari float back to where the rest of my classmates were and I frowned, glancing around. No one within five feet of me, not even any reploids. I sighed as I sat myself in a corner and curled up. Why did we have to visit all the boring places? Why not where we could see Cyber Elves being created? Or where the master computer was? Why couldn't we get to meet one of the Guardians?

I glanced down sadly as the group began to move on. I could catch up later... (Odd since I have abandonment issues).

"What's a little kid like you doing out here?" someone asked. I glanced up to see a reploid. His armor was of a green base, with what looked like wings on his helmet. Guessing from what I'd stumbled across (hacked) on the Net, I took an inference by saying his element of wind and he was a battle-built reploid. I blinked and looked down again. "Moping," I answered. He rosed an eyebrow.

"Why's that?"

"'Cause I only came on this stupid tour because I thought I'd get to either meet the Guardians or get to see the control room," I stated. He gave me an odd look. "Wouldn't you rather look out the window like most kids?" he asked. I shrugged.

"Unless I made the window (not that I'd do that either), no, I really wouldn't. I'm not like most kids..." I let my voice trail off.

"Why did you let yourself be left behind?" he asked next. I turned around to find no one from my class lurking. I blinked, puzzlement in my eyes no doubt. When had they left? No, never mind, that was a stupid question. How could Mrs. Hikari leave without me? What kind of teacher was she? "You sure ask a lot of question," I stated instead. He chuckled lightly, amused at my obliviousness. "I suppose I do," he agreed. "But I'm curious. Can you blame me?"

"Aren't we all?"

He nodded in response. "I suppose we are..."

We were quiet for a few minutes. I watched the reploids fly by, even grabbed one from the air and began inspecting it before letting it fly back to its destination. A hand was jabbed in my face after another five minutes, causing me to blink as I stared up at the green reploid. "Well, do you want to see the control room?" he asked. I gasped slightly before nodding happily and scrambling up to meet him. I walked besides him, a large grin on my face and my thoughts full of all the wonders I'd find. After passing through a STAFF ONLY door, I tilted forward slightly and smiled in thanks as we walked towards another door. "Thank you so much, Mister!" I stated happily. "My name is Aleous! I want to work here someday!" He rose an eyebrow.

"Here? Do you have what it takes to work here?" he questioned. I frowned a little as I thought about it. "Well... I think I'm pretty good (I've managed to hack through the protective programs and the system itself easily enough), but I've never had a real shot..." I muttered in reply. He smirked.

"Let's see if you can help us out here, then."

I stared at him blankly as he swiped a card and a door opened. I glanced at the word as we passed. "Re... stric... tion?" Restriction. How did this reploid have access to this far back in the Tower? "Mister-"

"Where. Were. YOU!?" a sudden voice demanded as a blue blur rushed past me and tackled the green reploid. "Mister!" I called, my eyes wide with fear as I stumbled back. Was this a Maverick!? How had it gotten in!? "L-Leviathan!" the reploid struggle out. I blinked in shock as I turned to the reploid who'd tackled my guide, recognition kicking in. She was mostly of a blue based armor design with a staff pointed at my guide's neck as she placed one heeled foot on top of his chest. SHE was a Guardian!? SHE was Fairy Leviathan!?

"I-I was getting someone to help with the pro-problem!" he mustered out. I blinked. Did he mean... "Oh really?" Leviathan hissed. "Then where is he!?"

"I-I'm a she," I muttered quietly, causing the Guardian to turn to me with wild eyes. I yelped as I fell on my butt (after failing to attempt to stand), scrambling back against what I hoped was a wall. My back connected with something that was solid, but not exactly wall-solid and I looked up to see a giant red-based reploid with a smirk on his face. "Who's the kid?" he asked as I scooted away from them all. Yet again I collided with something and I turned up to see a ninja-like reploid gazing down at me with large indifference. "This human girl will fix our main controller?" he asked as my head began to feel light and the room spun.

The reploid underneath Leviathan nodded curtly. "I promised her a chance to test out her skills," he stated. "She says she wants to work here when she's older." I paled as they all turned to me. "I-um... well, you know... I just..." I glanced down, trying to avoid passing out from shock. "I'm not that special..." The green reploid chuckled, but it came out as a wheeze. "I heard that comment about being able to hack into our systems," he stated with another wheeze of a laugh. I flushed as the reploids turned to me at once, the ninja one picking me up by the scruff of my neck and facing me towards him. "The human can do that?" he asked. I scowled.

"She did," the reploid corrected.

And now I'm probably going to be arrested... I thought gloomily. Frikkin' great (Note the sarcasm). "What?" the red reploid scoffed in a weird, ego-filled, disbelief. "As if this tiny human could do anything more than gaze out the window and look for her house." I winced, which did not do unnoticed by the ninja reploid suspending me. I scowled to cover it up. "I can program more than your simple hardware could ever even TRY!" I blurted, instantly covering my mouth with my hand. They all froze as the red one's eye twitched violently. All at once Leviathan and my guide broke out laughing while the ninja reploid behind me cracked a smirk. Well, it was better than the pout.

"I." A snarl. "Am." A step. "Going." Another step. My eyes widen. "To fucking." Another step. I cringed away and tried struggling from the ninja reploid's grip. "KILL YOU!" I yelped in shock as I was suddenly placed behind the ninja as he held a giant, blue-glowing shuriken at the red reploid with a scowl. "Fefnir," he stated. I give up. All the Guardians are crazy. Next thing you know, I'm going to find out that my mother was related to a whale and my father was a gerbil. Oh, and that I can fly and fart out rainbows. Yeah. "You are not allowed to harm a human being. It's against our programming and law. If you injured the human behind me, I will treat you as I do any other Maverick and eliminate you," he continued. I shivered.

The red Maver-I mean reploid-Fefnir paled slightly and took a few steps back. He glanced at me and his eyes told it all: 'You are dead when I get the chance.' His eyes narrowed further. 'Dead!' I winced, causing the ninja reploid to narrowed his eyes further. Then I blinked. And I blinked again. I turned and stared at the blue glowing shuriken, and it took me a moment, but before I could stop myself, I asked, "Is that Light Metal?" All three of the Guardians blinked and turned to me in shock, while my green guide just smirked to himself. The ninja reploid nodded cautiously.

"How do you know what Light Metal is?" Leviathan asked. I blushed and glanced down at the sudden attention, twindling my fingers. "Um... you know... by.. um... rumor?" I muttered uselessly. My guide chuckled as Leviathan took her shoe off his chest. "I told you, I heard her say she hacked into our systems. Light Metal isn't public knowledge, it's the only explanation." I winced.

"Please don't arrest me?" I stated, more liked asked. Leviathan blinked. "How much more can you guess of Phantom's weapon?" she questioned. I blink too as I glanced at my ninja savoir. So I was saved by the only none-crazy Guardian. Okay, I'm cool with that. I stood up wearily, eyeing Fefnir as Leviathan held her staff across his chest and signaled me to go. I smiled hesitantly as I got as close as I dared to the weapon. "It has a small center gravitator, which allows it to hover for certain amounts of time while the shuriken's points (I guess I can call them that) can rotate, allowing more air time. The points' themselves are made of harden plasma it seems, which is quite a feat. The only outcome for something this close was the beam saber."

Silence.

I shifted uneasily as all three of the Guardians stared at me, my guide looking quite smug as he stood. "I told you, she can help," he stated cockily. Leviathan sighed. "Fine Harpuia"- What? Harpuia? Guardian Harpuia? ... Why am I still so surprised? "-you win. She can see what's wrong," she stated. Harpuia smirked and turned to me with a grin. "Come on, let's head to the Control Room," he stated. I was hooked.

I could barely keep myself from running the rest of the way.

We turned a corner and I couldn't help myself anymore as I rushed into the room with CONTROL ROOM written above it in pure joy. I heard a mixture of laughs from behind me, probably Harpuia and Leviathan, as I rushed up to a monitor, plugging in my hard drive (hiding it by my leg positioning) and stared at the screen. I frowned immediately. "There's a virus," I mumbled in disbelief. "How could they not have noticed this?"

"Notice what?"

I turned to Phantom, Leviathan, Harpuia, and Fefnir with a frown. "You have a heavy-duty virus in your mainframe. It's easy to see if you know where to look. The whole mainframe's been infected," I restated. "You'd have to be a master hacker to get something like major in a system this complicated without hitting any warnings." They gave me a suggestive look and I blushed heavily before exclaiming, "I DIDN'T DO IT!" Fefnir rolled his eyes. "Suuure, kid. And I'm a human girl," he stated sarcastically.

"Never could pull it off if that were the case."

His nostrils flared and I flinched as Leviathan held her staff to his chest again. "Fefnir, kill the human girl I kill you," she spoke, irritation clear in her voice. She smiled at me and I shivered again. Defiantly a girl. Only we can have rapid mood swings like that. Then again, she saved me so I'm good with it. I turned back to the computer as Phantom asked, "Can you get it out?" I nodded with a confident grin. "'Course I can," I stated as I cracked my knuckles dramatically. "Or my parents were Mavericks." Harpuia smirked and I turned to the monitor.

First I need to figure out what virus infiltrated the system, I thought as I began typing, switching my vision from the keyboard to the screen every other second or so. I entered a stream of data, glancing around for anything that could have been out of place. I began hacking the system itself from the mainframe, digging deeper and deeper into the depth of Cyber Space. I could feel my eyes start to reflect the data and numbers that flashed on the monitor as I plunged in. Then I reached a firewall. I grinned. "I think I might have just found your perpetrator," I said.

"Why do you say that?" Phantom questioned. I smirked and turned his way. "The control room usually has access to all other networks and frames connected to it with no firewalls unless it was placed by higher authority, such as yourselves, the Guardians, or someone of a much higher standard than even that, like Master X. When you let me into the system, I assumed all firewalls would be down"- The look on their faces confirmed it. "-and so I wasn't expecting a heavy-duty firewall to appear such as this one. Besides, this one doesn't have the same pattern as the previous firewall I created a passage around. That one was clearly a Neo Arcadia firewall (seeing as I actually broke it then built it again, more secure). This one has the coding works of..." I stopped short as I stared, my hands suddenly trembling. I stared at the keyboard with wide eyes as the shock wormed its way through my body.

"Aleous?" Harpuia called. I didn't respond. I just stared. "Aleous!" Harpuia grabbed my shoulders as I trembled, trying to speak as my mouth opened and closed like a fish on land. He turned me around and looked me in the eyes and I could see genuine worry hidden behind a facade of calm and indifference. He was worried about me. I stared into Harpuia's green eyes with something that I believed and hoped resembled fear. "My parents," I whispered hoarsely. He blinked.

"What?"

"My parents," I murmured. "But it's impossible. They're dead. They died five years ago." My eyes began widening in panic. "Yet the programming in completely the same! I could recognize their work anywhere! How could they have placed this virus in here!? It doesn't make sense! How!? Why!? Are they alive!? No, the officers told me they died. They'd seen their bodies and I-I-I had seen them..." By now I was just rambling to myself, trying to find sense in everything I was speaking. "Did they take on an apprentice without telling me!? No, they said I was going to be their apprentice. They promised. Yet that's the only explanation. How? Why? What's going on?!" I turned to Harpuia and gazed into his eyes. I could see not only worry, but panic.

"Aleous-" Harpuia spoke softly, something that seemed oddly soothing with his voice. "-I need you to calm down." His grip on my shoulders tighten. "I need you to stop panicking and to take a deep breath. We are going to figure this out, but I need you to destroy this virus. This virus could put your classmates, neighbors, and all the other humans at risk. If the monitor continues to be infected, it will spread to all other programs. I need you to calm down and do what you must to destroy the virus, okay?" I nodded mutely as Harpuia hung his head slightly as he sighed. "We will figure this out, Aleous. I promise." I blinked and I think some life returned to me as I nodded again.

I turned to the monitor and began typing again, clicking a link to activate my white data program, a program I created to absorb, copy, then destroy a virus. I watched as the white pixels slowly surrounded the virus, crumpling it to nothing. After five minutes of endless typing to keep the white data in line and activated, the screen flowed green with the words VIRUS DELETED. I sighed heavily as I subtly placed my hard drive into my front leg pocket. A hand appeared on my shoulder as I turned to gaze at Harpuia. My body felt heavy. My vision seemed dull and dark. Everything seemed to be disappearing into darkness. My body tumbled backwards as my consciousness floated into Cyber.


End file.
